Cylindrical or round bales normally weigh about 1500 to 2000 pounds and have a size of about 5 or 6 feet in length and diameter. For this reason, specialized implements have been developed for lifting and carrying such bales and for dispensing the materials of such bales. Implements for lifting round bales include bale spikes, bale clamping arrangements, and various kinds of fork-lifts, most of the implements being motivated by hydraulic cylinders. Bale lifting implements have been provided as removable attachments to the front or rear or tractors and as permanent features of self loading bale handling trailers.
There are several methods of breaking down round bales for feeding the hay thereof to livestock. One method is to cut the bale cord and to manually unroll the bale on the ground. There are also machines for unrolling bales on the ground. Fruther dispersal of the hay is accomplished manually with hay forks. Another method employs bale shredders which often include rotating helical supports with angled teeth thereon which snag the hay and rip same from the bale, the hay then falling onto an auger which feeds the hay out onto the ground. One problem with helical shredders is that the geometric complexity of the structure increases the cost of manufacture.
Cattle are sometimes kept in lines of individual stalls or stanchions and fed from troughs which extend therealong. Such practice is common with dairy cattle to facilitate milking operations and for sanitary reasons. The outside rims of such troughs are sometimes raised to reduce waste of feed and for other reasons. The extra height required of an apparatus which fills such troughs poses some problems in designing such an apparatus, particularly if the apparatus is also required to load and carry bales. The problems include the complexity of the hay feeding device if the bale is maintained at a relatively low height during comminuting of the bale or the instability of the apparatus during travel and bale loading and possibly the complexity of the bale loading device itself if the bale is positioned relatively high to feed directly into the feed troughs.
The instability problems can be overcome to some extent by adapting the apparatus to be hitched to a three point hitch of a tractor. However, such a solution limits the utility of the bale handling apparatus.